Quick Tutorial

The “Rarefaction Engine” Measures Diversity

The “Rarefaction Engine” measures the mathematical diversity of an array of integers (often used to designate other data types, e.g. 1 = “apple”, 2 = “lemon”). It produces the mean number of unique integers found within the array itself when subjected to repeated, random sampling of a fixed size.

The sample size is then gradually increased in a stepwise fashion, resulting in a series of means known as the “rarefaction line”. This line can then be plotted on a graph and compared to lines produced by other datasets.

The “Rarefaction Engine” Excels Where Arithmetics Fail

The “Rarefaction Engine” excels when the diversity within two distributions are compared in situations where there is no arithmetically meaningful way to do so—e.g. when comparing vast numbers of categories, or when the size of the underlying population is simply too great to measure.

Sadly, the drawback of this type of relative, within-group analysis is that it cannot be used to generate a meaningful statistical inference.

Extensible Columns, Extensible Rows

The “Rarefaction Engine” offers extensibility in both columns and rows to suit your needs when analyzing a table of integers.